X5 682
by Kyra5972
Summary: What if Cordelia had bought a Halloween costume from Ethan's? One that consisted of a barcode tattoo?
1. A Cat? Cats are SO Unoriginal!

**Title:** X5-682

**Author:** Kyra

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Summary:** Challenge Response. What if Cordelia had bought a costume from Ethans? One that consisted of a barcode tattoo?

**Spoilers:** Buffy – Season 2 episode 'Halloween.' Dark Angel – Season 1 episode 'The Kids Are Aiight,' though no Pulse. Takes place during the Buffy timeline, meaning in the late 1990s.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**A/N:** So, apparently one of my Muses has a crush on Cordy….

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**Chapter 1: A Cat? Cats Are SO Unoriginal**

Cordelia Chase wandered around Party Town, browsing through their Halloween costumes. "Boring. Boring. Lame. Gross. No way," She muttered to herself as she looked through one of the racks.

"Cordelia! I have so found the perfect costume for you!" Harmony Kendell exclaimed, the blonde rushing up to Cordy with a costume in hand. Coming to a stop in front of her friend she held up the costume in her hand.

Cordelia raised her eyebrow at Harmony, "A cat?"

Harmony nodded, "Well, yeah! It's like, totally you!"

Cordy raked over the cat costume with a critical eye. "I think not," She said, "Besides, cats are _so_ unoriginal." With that she resumed flipping through the rack in front of her.

Harmony looked a bit disappointed before shrugging and hanging the costume up on a random rack, "Well, I'm going to go pay for my Unicorn costume," She said as she headed toward the front of the store.

A few minutes later Harmony rejoined Cordelia, her costume safely in a bag. "Find anything yet?" She asked.

The brunette shook her head, "Nope, nothing. This place has a horrible selection; the qualities really gone down." She gave the store one more cursory glance before turning toward the door. "Come on, let's go see if I can find anything at that new store. What was it called? Oh yeah, Ethan's."

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**So what do you think? I know, I know, I shouldn't be starting a new story, but well, one of my Muses seems to have a bit of a crush on Cordy as I have all sorts of Cordy-Centric ideas floating around in my head at the moment. I hope that getting at least one out will help and I'll be able to get back to work on 'A Charmed Slayer.'**

**Anyway, I hope you liked it. Next chapter will definitely be longer.**

**Please, please, please review?**

**Kyra**


	2. The Perfect Costume

**Title:** X5-682

**Author:** Kyra

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Summary:** Challenge Response. What if Cordelia had bought a costume from Ethans?

**Spoilers:** Buffy – Season 2 episode 'Halloween.' Dark Angel – Season 1 episode 'The Kids Are Aiight,' though there was no Pulse. Takes place during the Buffy timeline, meaning in the late 1990s.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**A/N:** So, apparently one of my Muses has a crush on Cordy….

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**Chapter 2: The Perfect Costume**

Cordelia walked into Ethan's like she owned the place, Harmony trailing a few steps behind her. As she browsed, she could already tell that this place had a much better selection than Party Town had. She watched as a middle aged man held a pink dress up to Buffy and talked to her for a moment, apparently talking the blonde into the costume as Buffy headed up to the counter with the dress to pay.

Cordelia switched her attention back to the costume selections in front of her and jumped slightly a moment later as a voice spoke up from directly behind her.

"Finding everything alright?" A British voice asked.

Cordy swung around to see that man who had helped Buffy standing behind her.

The man smirked at her slightly. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to frighten you. My name is Ethan Rayne; I own this shop," He said introducing himself, "Is there anything I can help you find?"

"I want something different. Not the ordinary cats or ghosts. Something special," Cordy replied.

"Something different? Well, you seem to know what you want, and I think I have the perfect costume for you. Now mind you, I wasn't actually planning on selling this particular costume," Ethan told the brunette as he headed toward the back room, Cordy right behind him. "Give me just a moment." He disappeared into the back for a moment before reemerging holding a pile of folded clothes with a small package on top. "Here we are."

Cordelia looked at the clothes critically. There was a pair of black slacks, a black jacket and a pair of black gloves. "And what exactly would I be supposed to be? A burglar? I said I wanted different and special, not felon."

Ethan smirked, "Oh yes, this is perfect for you. You wouldn't be a burglar or felon, far from it. You would be a…How to explain it? The reason I wasn't planning to sell this is because very few would have any idea what the costume was. Basically it's an undercover operative and assassin. Very smart, very strong and highly skilled. To tell you the truth, the clothes really aren't an important part of the costume. This," Here he picked up the small package on top and showed it to Cordelia, "Is the important part of the costume."

Cordy raised an eyebrow at him, "A barcode temporary tattoo? How is that important?"

"It's what identifies you as this type of assassin. It goes on the back of your neck," Ethan said simply.

Cordelia picked up the temporary tattoo and studied it for a moment. "You said no one would recognize what the costume was. Why would I want to be something no one's heard of? And how do you know what it is? Or are you just making this up?" She asked, shooting the Brit a suspicious look.

Ethan started to get a bit frustrated, thinking that he might have been wrong about the girl in front of him being perfect for this costume. "It would be like setting a trend," He told her, unable to keep the traces of a sneer off his face though he quickly smoothed them away. "And I've heard of them because I worked with them for a while, a few years back."

Cordy studied the man before her for a moment then looked back at the tattoo and the clothes. "Fine," She said after a long moment, "I'll take it, but just the tattoo. You said the clothes weren't important to the costume, just the tattoo, so I'll put together my own outfit."

Ethan merely nodded, "Of course, whatever you'd like." He slipped back into the back room to put the clothes away and quickly returned, taking the tattoo from Cordy and heading to the register.

As soon as she was rung up, Cordy went and grabbed Harmony away from Ethan's stock of Unicorn costumes and left the store, blonde in tow.

"So what did you decide on?" Harmony asked the brunette next to her.

Cordelia smirked, "I'm an assassin."

"What?" Harmony gasped, "Why would you want to be _that_?"

"Because it's a simple costume, just a tattoo, and I can pick whatever I want to go with it. Plus, how many people do you think are going to dress up as assassins?" Cordy replied rolling her eyes. "Look, I'm going to go home and get ready, I'll meet you at the school later to take the kids Trick-Or-Treating."

Cordy quickly turned away from Harmony and headed toward her car, glad to be away from the vapid blonde for a while. Really, who knew practically being worshipped could be so tiring?

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**Well, what do you think? Does Ethan's description sound about right for the X5s? I didn't want him to actually say that it was a transgenic or X5 since the Transgenics exist in this world but nobody knows about them yet.**

**Anyway, I hope you liked it. Please leave a review!**

**Kyra**


	3. My Designation Is X5 682

**Title:** X5-682

**Author:** Kyra

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Summary:** Challenge Response. What if Cordelia had bought a costume from Ethans?

**Spoilers:** Buffy – Season 2 episode 'Halloween.' Dark Angel – Season 1 episode 'The Kids Are Aiight,' though there was no Pulse. Takes place during the Buffy timeline, meaning in the late 1990s.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**A/N:** So, apparently one of my Muses has a crush on Cordy….

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**Chapter 3: My Designation Is X5-682**

Cordelia stood on the sidewalk watching as her group of kids rang a doorbell. Moments later a little old woman opened the door and Cordy scowled along with the kids as the woman dropped a toothbrush into each kid's bag. As soon as the kids returned to the sidewalk Cordy started down toward the next house, she knew she was gonna be pushing the time limit but really, toothbrushes?! She wanted to make sure that the kids got at least one more piece of candy before heading back to the high school to be picked up by their parents.

"Last house," She told them as they headed up the walk. As she waited she put her hands into the pockets of her knee-length black leather jacket and leaned against the fence post by the gate to the yard. She had decided to go all out with her assassin look, wearing a pair of low-slung black leather pants, a tight black halter top that showed off an inch or two of her stomach whenever she shifted, her leather jacket, a pair of sleek black leather gloves and a pair of black, almost combat style boots. She topped the whole outfit off with dark, smoky make-up and a pair of dark sunglasses that she had propped on top of her head with her hair pulled back into a ponytail so that every now and then you could catch a glimpse of a barcode temporarily tattooed on the back of her neck.

Turning from watching the kids knock for a moment, Cordy almost groaned as she saw Xander Harris headed her direction with his group of kids dutifully following behind him. Just as she pushed off the fence post she felt something odd wash over her and lost her balance for a moment but quickly caught herself.

As the brunette looked back up her eyes widened and a gasp escaped her as she looked around. "Nomalies," She breathed. Looking around once more, she noticed just how many there were, "Oh God, were there really that many Nomalies?" She asked herself, "And how did they escape?"

Just then, she heard the sound of gunfire and swiftly turned in the direction the shots came from. She quickly made her way to the soldier standing a short distance away from her. Just before she reached him a teenaged girl with red hair ran up behind him.

"Xander!" The girl cried.

The soldier spun around and pointed his gun at the girl.

"It's me, Willow!" The girl, Willow apparently, said.

The soldier, what had Willow called him? Xander? The soldier kept his gun pointed at the girl, "I don't know any Willow," He replied.

The redhead looked a bit exasperated, "Xander," Yep, Xander, that was it, "Quit messing around. This is no time for jokes!"

"What the hell's going on here?" Xander asked, lowering his rifle.

Willow looked surprised, "You don't know me?"

"Lady, I suggest you find cover," Xander said as he went to step around Willow.

"No, wait!" Willow exclaimed as she stepped into his path only to have Xander walk right through her, "Oh!"

The brunette girl blinked, "Well, that's different," She stated causing the other two to spin around to face her, Xander once more raising his gun.

"Who are you?" He demanded, then shifted part of his attention back to Willow, "And what are you?"

"My designation is X5-682," The brunette replied calmly.

"Huh? What are you talking about, Cordelia?" Willow asked.

The brunette cocked her head slightly, "Who's Cordelia? I told you, my designation is X5-682."

"Oh no, oh no!" Willow exclaimed, "This is bad. Ok, listen to me. I was dressed a-as a ghost for Halloween and now I really a-am a ghost. A-and, Xander, you were dressed as a soldier and now I guess you really are a soldier."

"You expect me to believe that?" Xander asked then motioned to the other girl with them, "And even if I did believe it, what about her, then? What was she dressed up as?"

"I-I don't know. We're not exactly friends." Willow replied.

Before anyone could say anything else a monster jumped out across the street, growling and Xander quickly brought his rifle up and aimed at it, causing the monster to run off.

"No!" Willow yelled, "No guns! That's still a kid in there!"

"Out of the way."

X5-682 quickly assessed the situation before stepping in, "No guns," She stated firmly, "That's an order, Soldier."

Xander reluctantly lowered his weapon and Willow shot her a grateful look.

"We just need to find…" Willow started before trailing off as she caught sight of someone over X5-682's shoulder, "Buffy!" She quickly hurried toward her friend, Xander and X5-682 right behind her.

"Buffy, are you okay?" Willow asks as she reaches the other girl.

As Buffy opened her mouth to reply, the monster from before returned, this time with a friend and both of them let out deep rumbling growls.

"Buffy, what do we do?" Willow asked, shooting a nervous look at the approaching monsters. When nobody answers Willow, Xander and X5-682 all turn to the other girl just in time to see her faint.

"Yeah, because that's productive," The assassin stated as she looked down at the dark haired girl in the pink dress lying unconscious on the ground.

Willow shot her a dark look before turning back to Buffy.

Xander shot off a few rounds at the ground just in front of the approaching demons, causing Buffy to stir at the noise.

"Buffy? Are you alright?" Willow questioned.

"What?" Buffy asked.

X5-682 rolled her eyes, "Are you hurt?"

"Buffy, are you hurt?" Willow asked more gently.

Buffy looked at them in confusion, "Buffy?"

Willow's eyes widened, "She's not Buffy," She stated as she glanced back and forth between the two brunettes with her.

"Who's Buffy?" Was the reply that she got in stereo from the two.

"Oh this is fun," The redhead muttered before turning back to the now hyperventilating Buffy.

X5-682 promptly tuned them out as she looked around for something to use as a weapon. _'Really, what was I thinking going anywhere without a weapon?'_ She thought to herself. She spots a large, sturdy looking branch lying on the ground and picks it up, testing the weight before deciding that it'll do until she can find a better weapon.

"A DEMON! A DEMON!" Buffy shrieks, causing the assassin to swing around into a defensive position, wielding the branch like a staff. She quickly glances around before realizing that Buffy is staring at a car in fright.

She relaxed her stance and raised an incredulous eyebrow before turning to face Willow, "A car? She thinks a car is a demon?"

"She thinks its 1775!" Willow defended, "She's never seen a car before!"

"Right. Well, first things first, we need to get somewhere safer, easier to defend." X5-682 stated, looking at Willow expectantly.

Willow nodded, "I know somewhere we can go," She said before leading them away.

Not long after they were safely inside what Willow said was Buffy's home. Willow lead them all into the living room and guided Buffy to the couch, thinking it would be best for the other girl to sit down before she fainted again.

Buffy sat down, nobody noticing the remote control on the cushion until Buffy sat on it, turning the TV on.

"Oh!" Buffy exclaimed, jumping back up and looking at the TV in shock.

X5-682 reached over and grabbed the remote off the couch and pointed it at the TV. Just as she was about to hit the power button the screen flickered and changed to show a man's eyes with the words 'STREAMING FREEDOM BULLETIN' running along the top and bottom of the screen.

"Eyes Only!" She exclaimed, "I thought he only broadcasted in Seattle."

"What?" Both Willow and Xander asked only to be shushed as a man's voice started to speak.

"_Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a Streaming Freedom Video Bulletin. This cable hack cannot be traced; it cannot be stopped. It is the only free voice left in this city. This is a message to those kown as X5. You've been compromised. You're in danger. You know what to do. I repeat, you've been compromised. You know what to do. This message will repeat every hour on the hour until each of you has checked in."_

The transgenic's eyes widened as she listened to the Eyes Only broadcast.

"X5s?" Xander questioned, looking at the other brunette questioningly, "Didn't you introduce yourself as X5-something-or-other?"

She nodded, "X5-682. That's my designation. But that message can't be for me. I can't have been compromised because there isn't anything _to_ compromise, I'm not on a mission. At least not that I remember, but then again, I don't remember how I got here either. Maybe I _was_ on a mission. He's probably talking about the group that ran away, 599 and 452 and the others from thier unit. Though...Maybe I should check in…just in case?" She moved toward the phone only to be stopped by Xander.

"Don't you think that can wait? We're kinds in the middle of something here."

682 nodded, "Right, I'll check upstairs, you check down here." She then turned to Willow, "You stay with Buffy."

Willow, shook her head, "No. I know someone who can help; I'm going to see him."

682 stared at the redhead for a moment and nodded once more, "Alright."

The redhead quickly disappeared through the wall.

"I'll keep an eye on Buffy," Xander stated and the transgenic girl nodded once more and headed up the stairs. A few minutes later she was back.

"It's clear," She stated.

Before she could say anything else a tall, dark man entered through the kitchen. "Oh good, you guys are alright." He said, "It's chaos out there."

Xander, Buffy and 682 looked at him blankly for a moment before both Xander and X5-682 spoke up, "Who are you?"

682 continued, "And what are you? You don't feel right. Your body temperature is off and I can't hear a heartbeat."

Xander stared at her for a moment, "How the hell do you know that? He's on the other side of the room!"

As they talked, Buffy wandered back into the living room, not listening to the conversation.

The brunette just shrugged, "I have good senses."

"It's me, Angel! You all know me. I'm a vampire. You know that as well," The man replied.

Xander brought his rifle up and aimed it at Angel, "Aren't vampires evil?" He asked.

"Yes, but I'm not; I have a soul. We've been over this before!" Angel exclaimed.

"Right. I'm going to go out on a limb here and trust that you're telling the truth; I'm not really sure. All three of us have some sort of amnesia. That Willow girl said that we were all turned into our Halloween costumes. None of the three of us remember who you think we are." Xander said as he slowly lowered his gun.

Just then the lights went out. 682's eyes automatically adjusted, her cat DNA allowing her to see in the dark. Buffy let out a shriek and Angel quickly made his way over to her.

682 sighed, "Alright, we need to get this place secure. Angel, you take the princess there and secure the kitchen; Xander and I will secure the front of the house."

Angel nodded and led Buffy toward the kitchen as the two teenaged brunettes headed to the front of the house. Minutes later, they heard Angel's voice across the house, "Buffy! NO! Wait! Dammit! She ran!" The last bit was directed at the two teens.

"Damn," Xander cursed.

"Let's go," 682 said and they headed out to look for Buffy.

It didn't take them long to find her, 682 had amazing tracking skills. When they caught up with her she was being accosted by what looked to be a pirate. Xander quickly hit the guy with the butt of his gun went to check on Buffy as 682 quickly started beating on the pirate. Soon, the pirate was barely conscious. The calm only lasted a moment before a large group of mini monsters showed up, being led by a bleach blonde vampire. Shortly after Willow showed back up, informing them that they could hurt the blonde as much as they wanted, as he was actually a vampire, not a kid in a costume.

Just as it looked like they were going to lose and Buffy was going to be killed, they all felt something strange wash over them. 682 lost her balance a bit and when she regained herself and looked back up it was to see a black wig slip off of Buffy's head.

"Hi, Honey. I'm home," Buffy quipped, before letting lose and beating the hell out of Spike before throwing him across the warehouse they're in, landing him in a pile of boxes. Spike wisely flees, knowing that he's lost this time around.

"Everyone alright?" Buffy asks, looking around at everyone.

Everyone nods, though the children all look frightened.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cordelia says as she rolls her shoulder a bit.

"Come on, let's go," Angel says as they round up the kids and herd them back to the school.

Once the kids are safely back with their parents and Willow has rejoined them, Xander turns to look at Cordelia, "By the way, what were you supposed to be?" He asked curiously, "What's an X5?"

That gets Buffy and Angel's attention as well as Willow's and they all turn to look at the brunette girl.

Cordy quickly thinks over the memories that she now has from X5-682 and looks back at the others, "Believe me, you don't want to know."

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**Well, what did you think? I think that's gonna be it for this one, though if you want a sequel let me know, cos I have an idea for one. Actually, I'll probably do the sequel anyway, but I'd still like to know if you wanna see one.**

**Anywho, I hope you all liked it. Please, please, please review and let me know what you think. This was my first Dark Angel fic and I'm kinda nervous about how I did, even if there wasn't really a lot of actual Dark Angel stuff in it except for this last chapter. The sequel will definitely have more Dark Angel stuff in it as well as more of the Dark Angel characters.**

**Laterz,**

**Kyra**


	4. Heat

**Title:** X5-682

**Author:** Kyra

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Summary:** Challenge Response. What if Cordelia had bought a costume from Ethans?

**Spoilers:** Buffy – Season 2 episode 'What's My Line Part 2,' though I did change it a bit. Dark Angel – None this chapter.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**A/N:** So, apparently one of my Muses has a crush on Cordy….

**A/N2:** Okay, so I was gonna do a sequel but decided to just continue instead. The main reason I was gonna end it and do a sequel was that I was originally going to skip much more time, but I changed my mind last minute. Actually, it was more like I sat down to start the sequel and my Muse wouldn't cooperate, this is what came out and I decided that it fit in well enough that I didn't need to make it a separate story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

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**Chapter 4: Heat**

Cordelia sat up with a gasp. Quickly glancing at the clock on her bedside stand she flopped back onto the pillows with a groan as she saw that it was only four in the morning. Ever since Halloween nearly a month ago, she hadn't been sleeping more than four or five hours a night, though it always felt as though she had gotten at least nine hours. She had also noticed that in addition to not needing as much sleep, she was also faster and stronger and that all of her senses seemed to be better. It was almost as if X5-682 was still a part of her.

Cordy shut her eyes with a sigh only to have them snap open again moments later as images from her dream flashed behind the closed lids.

_There was blood everywhere. It coated everything, the couch, the carpet, the walls…Her. It had been messy but her mission was complete; the targets had been eliminated._

With another sigh, Cordelia quickly got out of bed and got dressed in a pair of track pants and a sports bra. Since Halloween she had taken to doing some of the exercises and training routines 682 had done at Manticore every morning, followed by going for a run once the sun came up and she no longer had to worry about vampires. Granted, she figured she could probably take them out with no problem, but she didn't want to chance it. After nearly a month of doing this, Cordy was in the best shape of her life and her body no longer protested the movements that were quickly becoming second nature to her, just as they had been second nature to 682.

A few hours later Cordy returned from her run and quickly took a shower before getting dressed for school.

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Cordy paced in the basement of the Summers' home. Her and Xander had gotten trapped down there by a man who was made of bugs, one of the members of the Order of Taraka that had been hired to kill Buffy. Cordy was trying to think of a way out without Xander finding out that she had retained more of X5-682 after Halloween than she apparently should have.

"Would you stop pacing?" Xander demanded from his position sitting against the wall. "You're making me nauseous."

Cordy leaned against the washing machine, "Sorry, but I'm trying to come up with a plan here! Which is more than you're doing," She snapped.

"I have a plan," Xander replied, "Stay here and wait for Buffy to rescue us."

Cordelia rolled her eyes and headed toward the stairs.

Where are you going?" Xander asked, jumping to his feet.

"To see if he's still there," Cordy said as though it should have been obvious. "Is it hot in here to you?" She asked distractedly as she reached for the doorknob.

Xander blinked a bit at the sudden topic change before answering, "What? No. And you can't open the door if he might still be here. This is Buffy's house; she'll have to come back here eventually." He moved so that he was between Cordelia and the door.

"Move out of my way," Cordy told him, then, "Are you sure it isn't hot in here?"

"I'm positive. And I'm not moving."

"Damn it, Xander! Move!" Cordelia demanded.

"No," He stated firmly.

The two brunettes stood glaring at each other for a moment before Cordelia quickly moved forward and sealed her mouth over Xander's, kissing him.

Xander froze for a second in shock before kissing back.

Moments later Cordelia pulled back in horrified shock. _'Oh my God! I'm in heat!'_ She thought as her mind connected what was happening with 682's memories of being in heat.

"We need to get out of here, "She said urgently.

Xander just nodded as he turned to the door, "Oh yeah!"

Cordy stood behind him as he cracked open the door and checked to make sure that the coast was clear. She was doing everything in her power to control her now raging hormones and not shove Xander against the nearest wall and satisfy her need to mate.

"I think it's clear," Xander said as he headed throughthe door and Cordelia followed close behind.

As they passed through a doorway Corrdelia felt something land on her shoulder and paused as she turned her head to see what it was. There on her shoulder was a worm. She looked up just as a bunch of bugs fell on them from above the doorway.

The two teens ran out the front door, brushing bugs off of themselves as they went. Xander quickly went for the hose and turned it on Cordy, who had had most of the bugs land on her, and sprayed the bugs off.

As soon as the last bugs were off of them they jumped into Cordelia's car and Cordy tore off down the road.

Cordelia gripped the steering wheel tightly to keep from reaching over to the boy next to her. Thankfully the cold water from the hose had managed to cool her lust a bit, though not by much.

Minutes later the car screeched to a stop in front of the school.

"You can tell them what happened," Cordy said, "I'm going to go home and scrub the grossness away for a few hours."

Xander just nodded, knowing it would be useless to argue.

As soon as Xander was out of the car and the door was closed Cordy took off, heading for home. _'Thank God my parents are out of town this week,'_ She thought.

Once home, Cordelia grabbed a pint of Ben and Jerry's out of the freezer and ran a cold bath to soak in while she ate her ice cream. She let out a sigh as she slid into the water, shivering slightly at the cold.

"Oh, I am _so_ calling in sick to school for the next two days," She muttered as she took a bit of ice cream.

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**So, yeah, like I said, I decided to just continue this rather than do a sequel, hope nobody minds.**

**I hope you all liked this chapter! Leave a review and let me know what you think! Pretty, pretty please?**

**Kyra**


	5. You Think I'm WHAT?

**Title:** X5-682

**Author:** Kyra

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Summary:** Challenge Response. What if Cordelia had bought a costume from Ethan's?

**Spoilers:** Buffy – Season 2 episode 'What's My Line Part 2,' though I did change it a bit. Dark Angel – None this chapter.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**A/N:** So, apparently one of my Muses has a crush on Cordy….

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**Chapter 5: You Think I'm WHAT?!**

Cordelia walked through the cemetery, her senses on high alert. It had been just over two months since everything with Angelus and Acathla had happened; just over two months since Buffy had run away. Cordy had been patrolling every night since the Slayer left and while Xander, Willow and Oz helped, none of them knew that Cordy went back out after they had all headed home.

It was nearing three a.m. when the brunette finally decided to head home. I thad been a slow night, she had only dusted four vamps, all of them fledges. Cordy sighed as she passed through the cemetery gates, thinking about everything that had happened over the last few months. First, Buffy and Angel had slept together, causing Angel to lose his soul. Then, Angelus had killed Ms. Calender when she tried to find a way to re-curse him. When Willow had found the disk containing the curse and tried to perform it they had been interrupted and they all ended up in the hospital. Drusilla had killed Kendra that night as well. Angelus had decided to try and suck the world into hell using Acathla, but since the world was still here and no more hellish than before Cordy figured Buffy had managed to stop him, though she had no idea how. Or maybe Willow's spell had work when they retried it at the hospital and Angel's soul was returned and that's what stopped him. Nobody knew what had happened that night, because nobody had seen Buffy or Angel since then. So either Buffy killed Angelus in order to stop him and then ran away or Angel got his soul back and the two of them decided to run away together. Cordelia snorted at the thought, _'Yeah right! They would both know the dangers of that, plus one of them would have at least called to tell us they were okay. Odds are, Buffy killed Angelus then bailed.'_ So, ever since Buffy took off Cordy, Xander, Oz & Willow had been patrolling every night while Giles tried to track Buffy down, chasing even the smallest, vaguest of leads.

However, none of those things were what weighed on her mind the most. While sitting with Willow at the hospital waiting for her to wake up after the first time the tried the Soul Restoration, a Streaming Freedom Video had come on the air. She remembered watching and listening in shock as Eyes Only exposed Manticore. Just days later, the destruction of a VA Hospital was headline news, though Cordy knew from 682's memories that it was actually a Manticore facility, not a hospital. Since then, the brunette had seen at least four Transgenics pass through Sunnydale, though none of them had stayed long. Two had been X6s, one an X5 that 682 had once trained with, and one was a Nomally, a Transgenic that looked like he had a bit too much reptile thrown in the mix with a long, serpent-like tongue and scales all over his body. The other Scoobies had seen the serpentine Transgenic and assumed he was a demon; Cordy, however, had known otherwise as soon as she caught a glimpse of the barcode on the back of his neck as they chased him through on of Sunnydale's numerous cemeteries. As soon as she'd seen the barcode, she had pretended to trip and hurt her ankle, distracting the others long enough for the Transgenic to escape.

Cordy absentmindedly reached up and rubbed the back of her neck where she knew 682's barcode to be. It was still there, though faded; it now appeared to be a faint birthmark, or perhaps a long faded tattoo. It was now faint enough that one might think it to be nothing more than a shadow; an oddly shaped shadow, but a shadow none-the-less.

Reaching her house, Cordelia quietly slipped inside and up to her room. After a quick shower she headed for bed and a few hours of sleep.

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Cordelia sighed as she walked into the high school library. Willow, Oz and Xander were all sitting at the large table in the center of the room, but Giles was nowhere to be seen and his office light was off.

"Giles off following another useless lead, then?" Cordy questioned as she sat down at the end of the table, Willow and Oz on her right and Xander to her left.

"A contact of his thinks they saw Buffy in New York a couple of days ago," Xander replied as the three teens turned to look intently at their newest arrival.

The brunette noticed their stares and raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"We saw you last night," Willow stated seriously.

"Yeah," Cordy replied slowly, "And I saw you, too. We patrolled together. So what?"

"Not then," Oz said softly, "After."

"We decided that, even though you had a stake and holy water and a cross, you shouldn't be walking home alone. We were going to catch up to you and walk you home, then the three of us would head home after," Xander started explaining.

"But when, we caught up to you we saw you fighting a vamp. We were gonna jump in and help you but before we could you had dusted him. It was almost like it was easy for you," Willow continued, "We decided to just let it be for the night and head home and talk to you today…Which we're doing now."

Cody's eyes had widened as she realized what the others had seen. _'Thank God it was just a fledge and I wasn't going full-out,'_ She thought to herself. Out loud she tried to explain it away. "He was just a fledge. Barely out of the ground and totally disoriented. I got lucky," She told them, lying about everything except the vamp's fledge status.

"No way," Xander replied. "We saw you, you were fighting way better than you normally do."

"So, Cordelia, is there something you want to tell us?" Willow questioned, looking at her best friend's girlfriend intently.

"Like what?" Cordy asked. _'Like, I'm a genetically enhanced human being? Or, well sort of, anyway? I think not!'_

Oz spoke up in that quiet way of his, "Like how you're the new Slayer."

The brunette gaped at the others for a moment. "You think I'm WHAT?!" She asked incredulously.

"The new Slayer," Her boyfriend replied, "The one Called when Kendra died."

Willow nodded, "It would make sense. I mean, we haven't heard anything about a new Slayer yet, and who's to say it can't be you?"

"You were fighting much better than normal last night," Oz pointed out.

"God! Are you guys _insane_? I'm not the new Slayer! I was fighting better last night because I've been training. I've been learning how to fight, but I didn't want to tell you because I thought you might make fun of me," She told them, not sure if she should laugh or breathe a sigh of relief at the conclusion they had all jumped to.

"Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense," Willow said looking thoughtful.

"Yeah. But we wouldn't have made fun of you, Cor. We can understand wanting to be able to protect yourself better. Especially with Buffy gone, "Xander said.

Oz merely nodded his agreement.

"Well, now that we've firmly established that I am _not_ a Slayer, I have some shopping to do. I'll see you guys later," Cordy said as she stood up from the table and headed for the door.

After getting a quick goodbye from each of the others, Cordy headed out to her car, mentally berating herself for almost being found out. _"Lydecker would have had my head if this had happened at Manticore,'_ She thought, the X5 in her making her presence felt. Quickly shrugging off the thought, Cordy pulled out of the school parking lot and turned toward the highway, deciding that shopping in L.A. sounded like a good plan for the day.

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**Well, what did you think? I know the end wasn't that great but I wanted to get this out. It's my birthday tomorrow, technically today since it's after midnight now, and I doubt I'll have time to get any writing done. But I didn't want to make you guys wait, so I figured I'd finish this chapter before heading to bed. I hope you all liked it.**

**Next chapter: Faith arrives. Yay!**

**Until Then,**

**Kyra**


	6. Seizing

**Title:** X5-682

**Author:** Kyra

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Summary:** Challenge Response. What if Cordelia had bought a costume from Ethan's?

**Spoilers:** Buffy – Season 3, after Faith arrives but before 'Lover's Walk.' Dark Angel – None this chapter.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**A/N:** So, apparently one of my Muses has a crush on Cordy….

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**Chapter 6: Seizing**

Cordelia laughed as she listened to Willow recount a story from when her and Xander had been younger. The slim redhead was sitting across from her at the table that their small group had claimed at the Bronze. Looking to her left she saw Buffy trying to stifle her giggles, on her right the new Slayer, Faith, was sitting with a huge grin on her face. It was just the four of them tonight; they had decided that a Girls' Night Out was in order and had told Xander and Oz to stay away from the Bronze for the night and told Giles that he was only to contact them if the world was ending.

Cordy reached for her soda, pausing as she realized it was empty. "Ok, next round is on me. Who wants what?" She asked. After getting everyone's orders, she swiftly stood and made her way to the bar.

As she stood by the bar waiting for their drinks her eyes scanned the crowd before locking on a blonde girl dancing in the middle of the dance floor. She was dancing with a grace that was damn near feline. As she watched, the dancer turned around, her hair flying around her shoulders and off her neck, momentarily baring a barcode tattoo to Cordy's X5-enhanced eyesight. It was only visible for a split second before the girl had her arms in the air, one above her head and the other casually drifting down to cover the back of her neck. After studying the blonde for a moment, Cordy decided that the girl was only there for fun and wasn't a threat.

The bartender set down her order of drinks and Cordy quickly handed him her money before running a hand through her hair, ensuring that it fell over the back of her neck and covered her barcode. Once that was done, she quickly grabbed the drinks and headed back to the table where the others were waiting.

After a few more hours of laughing, chatting and dancing, the four girls decided to head home.

"I'll walk Willow back, if you'll take Cordy home," Buffy said, looking at Faith as they exited the club.

The brunette Slayer nodded, "Sure thing, B. See you guys later. C'mon, Queen C."

Cordy, Willow and Buffy quickly said their goodbyes and the group split up, Buffy and Willow heading towards Willow's house and Faith and Cordelia heading for Cordy's.

The two girls chatted and laughed on the way back, enjoying each other's company and bonding a bit over the fact that they were both a bit on the outside looking in where the Scoobies were concerned. About halfway to her house, Cordelia started shaking slightly. Her eyes widened a bit as she slipped her hand into her jacket pocket only to realize that she had left her bottle of tryptophan at home before going out with the other girls. Trying to keep calm, she subtly increased her pace a bit and put her hands into her pockets to try and hide the shaking. After about five minutes, Faith stopped talking mid-sentence as Crodelia's shaking became noticeable.

"Hey, you okay?" Faith asked, looking a bit concerned as the other girl's shaking seemed to get worse as she watched.

Cordy shkily nodded, "Y-yeah. I just need to get home. I have meds I can take for this. I'll be f-fine."

Faith looked at her as though she didn't quite believe her before nodding and increasing her pace, trying to hurry. She stopped short moments later, though when Cordelia's shaking got so bad that she collapsed and continued shaking on the ground.

"Holy shit! Cordelia!" Faith cried before crouching down and picking the other girl up and turning in a different direction, "Come on, I'm taking you to the hospital."

Cordy frantically shook her head as she reached out and grabbed onto the denim of Faith's jacket. "N-no. No hospital. Please! Just get m-me home. I'll be fine, I swear."

Faith paused a moment, unsure. Finally she sighed and turned back in the direction of Cordelia's house. She didn't even bother thinking of how it would look if anyone were to see her, she just took off running, the shaking Cordelia still in her arms.

As they reached the house, Cordy had Faith dig her key out of her jacket pocket. Faith quickly fished the key out and unlocked the front door. The Slayer swiftly made her way to Cordelia's room, following the other girls directions to get there.

Cordy curled up into a ball as Faith gently laid her on her bed. "Th-there. In my vanity. There's a false bottom to the bottom right hand drawer. Under that there's a bottle of tryptophan."

Faith quickly got the bottle out of the drawer and opened it up, handing it to the violently shaking brunette on the bed.

Cordy tried to shake a few pills out but ended up spilling the whole bottle onto the covers. She just reached out and picked some up, quickly popping them into her mouth and dry swallowing them. Then she curled back into a ball trying to ride out the rest of the seizure. She felt the bed dip moments later as Faith sat down next to her, the other girl gently reaching out and rubbing soothing circles onto Cordy's back.

Close to ten minutes later, Cordy finally relaxed fully, the shaking gone but for a few small after-tremors.

"You okay?" Faith asked after a few moments of silence.

Cordy nodded, "Yeah. Thanks for not taking me to the hospital."

"Yeah, well you have some serious explaining to do. What the hell was that?" The other girl replied.

Cordy sighed and rolled onto her back, turning her head to look at Faith sitting next to her. "That was a seizure. I have them every now and then, but the tryptophan helps. I can't believe I forgot to take some with me when we went out tonight."

"Why the hell didn't anyone tell me that you have seizures?"

Cordy snorted softly, "Because they don't know. They only started last year."

Faith looked at her incredulously, "Why don't they know? You need to tell them."

"I think not. Telling them would mean explaining everything to them."

"What do you mean? Explaining everything?" Faith asked curiously.

Cordy sighed again, "Did anyone tell you about last Halloween yet?"

Faith looked confused for a few more minutes before her expression cleared slightly, "You mean how you all turned into your costumes?" She asked and Cordy nodded, "What does that have to do with this?"

"That's when the seizures started. See, no one knows what I dressed up as for Halloween. Hell, I didn't even know what I was; I thought I was just an assassin. Like from a comic or movie or something that I had never seen. _So_ not the case. When we all turned into our costumes, I got turned into something called an X5, a genetically engineered soldier. And I wasn't turned into just some random X5 the way someone dressed up as a cheerleader would have turned into just another cheerleader; I was turned into a specific X5. The part of my costume was a barcode temporary tattoo that went on the back of my neck, turns out, that barcode actually went to an X5 that really existed. Her designation was X5-682. She was a star pupil at Manticore, great at hand-to-hand and with all manner of weapons, very strong and agile and fast. And I have all of her memories. Though they stop a few years ago…From what I can tell, the memories stop there because she died. After the spell ended, everyone else went back to being the regular old selves, some of them retained some of the memories, like Xander, but nobody kept _all_ of the memories like I did. And the memories aren't all that I kept. It's almost like I'm half X5 or something. I'm faster, stronger, more agile, I have better senses, hardly need to sleep anymore and my immune system is way better. I'm also stuck with the damn seizures and the Heat cycles as well," Cordelia explained.

Faith looked thoughtful for a moment as she tried to remember something. "Manticore. That's that government project that that Eyes Only guy was talking about a few months ago, right?"

"Yeah. What he didn't mention though, is the way that we - they - were genetically enhanced. It wasn't just finding DNA from smart people or fast people or strong people. We - they - were all created in test tubes and incubated in surrogates. And the DNA used was a mixture of human and animal. 682, for instance has both cat and shark DNA in her. I guess that for some reason the spell on Halloween altered my DNA somehow because that's the only thing I can think of to explain the seizures and the Heat cycles. The Heat cycles especially. Those were caused by her feline DNA. It's also what made her faster and more agile and able to jump higher than normal people. The shark DNA is what makes it so that I don't need to sleep as much. That's why I didn't want to go to the hospital. Can you imagine what would happen if they ran a test and found animal DNA in me? It's almost like when the spell ended 682 stayed a part of me, just muted or something."

"Wow. What a bunch of sick freaks. So, if that place that burned down was a Manticore facility, then what happened to everyone that was in there? Everyone like 682?" Faith asked, trying to absorb what Cordelia had just told her. "And wait, you said that the barcode was the part of your costume that made you change?"

Cordy nodded, "Yeah, everyone created by Manticore has a barcode. We can't get rid of them, they're actually part of our DNA. I mean, it can be removed like a tattoo, but it just comes back a couple of weeks later. I actually still have 682's barcode on my neck, though its pretty faded, like an old tattoo or something. As for the others at Manticore; I think they escaped as the place went down. I've seen a few Transgenics here in town over the last few months; a couple of X Series' and one that we called Nomallies, they were the ones with a bit too much animal DNA. There was even an X Series Transgenic at the Bronze tonight. You'll have to be careful about the Nomallies though, we thought the one I saw was a demon until I noticed the barcode and managed to distract the others long enough for it to get away."

Faith looked surprised for a moment, "I've actually seen your barcode, I just thought it was a badly done tat that had faded out or something. I'm glad that the others escaped though, they didn't deserve to die like that. And don't worry, If I see anything with a barcode on the back of its neck, I'll tell it to get out of town before B sees it."

Cordelia nodded with a sigh, "Thanks. God, it feels good to finally tell someone about all this. Just please don't tell the others yet."

"I won't, I promise. Just make sure you keep those pills with you, okay?"

Cordy just nodded as her eyelids started to droop.

Seeing that the other girl was starting to fall asleep Faith stood up, "Well, I better get back to the motel," She said as she headed for the bedroom door.

Cordelia slowly pulled herself up off the bed, "Nah, don't worry about it. You can stay here. I have plenty of room. My bed is huge, or you can stay in one of the guest rooms if you want." She moved over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of pajamas. "I'm gonna go change, just pick something out of that drawer to sleep in."

"You sure?" Faith asked.

Cordy nodded, "Yeah, its fine," She replied as she headed into the bathroom connected to her room to change. When she came back out, Faith was changed and already laying in the bed.

"I figured I'd stay in here with you; make sure you're okay. You gave me a bit of a scare earlier," The brunette Slayer told her.

Cordelia nodded and climbed into bed, "Works for me."

Moments later and Cordy had turned out her bedside lamp and both girls drifted off to sleep.

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**Yay! Another chapter done! I figured it would take me longer since I was planning on having a Stargate: Atlantis Marathon since I got the first 3 seasons for my birthday. But since I didn't get around to starting that today, I figured I'd go ahead and update. I hope you all liked it!**

**Please, please, please review and let me know what you thought!**

**Kyra**


	7. Saying Goodbye

**Title:** X5-682

**Author:** Kyra

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, I don't own it! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Summary:** Challenge Response. What if Cordelia had bought a costume from Ethan's? One that consisted of a barcode tattoo?

**Spoilers:** Buffy – Season 3 finale. Dark Angel – End-ish of Season 2.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**A/N:** I know, I know, it's been forever since I updated this. I'm really sorry about that. I lost all my notes for this when my computer crashed last year and then couldn't remember how I wanted things to go and what all I wanted to happen. I'm trying to come up with a new outline and figure out where I want to take this since I can't remember where it was originally supposed to go other than the pairings. So don't be surprised if it takes me a while to update this again. Also, this is a short one. I apologize. I did try to make it longer, but it kept sounding forced.

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**Chapter 7: Saying Goodbye**

Cordelia stood staring at the smoking ruins of what was once her high school. Faith stood next to her, a little banged up but not too bad. The two girls were probably about even as far as injuries went.

The Mayor had Ascended and become a pure demon at Graduation. The Scoobies had gotten the entire Senior class to help fight him and the vampires that showed up for the ceremony as well. The fight had ended with Buffy blowing up the Mayor, along with Sunnydale High.

During the battle, Faith and Cordy had stuck close together since Faith was still the only one to know about Cordy's X5 enhancements. If anyone asked, most of the damage Cordy caused could be blamed on Faith and no one would question it.

"Ya know," Faith started, "that almost makes me wish I had gone to school here…"

Cordy turned and looked at Faith like she was crazy, "_Why_?!?!"

Faith grinned at her friend as she replied. "Because this would be _so_ much more satisfying if I had," she told her.

Cordy just shook her head and laughed. The two girls had gotten extremely close ever since Faith found out about Cordy's seizures and X5 enhancements. They had gotten even closer after Cordelia broke up with Xander after walking in on him making out with Willow. The two were practically inseparable and told each other everything. In fact, it had been Cordy that Faith went to when she accidentally killed Deputy Mayor Finch. She had told Cordy everything, what happened, how she felt about, how scared she was because she didn't know what to do or how to deal. Cordy had just held her friend and let her talk before reassuring her that everything would be okay, that she wasn't a horrible person. She had told Faith about some of the things she remembered X5-682 doing, some of the missions she had gone on. While it may not have actually been her on the missions, carrying out the orders, she still remembered it as it had been her. Because of that, she had been able to help Faith deal with her guilt over killing the Deputy Mayor and it became just one more thing that brought them closer together.

"So what now?" Faith asked as they turned to head for Cordy's car and back to the apartment the two of them had moved into together after Cordy's dad had lost everything to the IRS.

Cordy shrugged. "I was thinking Seattle," she replied.

Faith arched an eyebrow as she looked at her friend. "Seattle?" she asked. "This doesn't have anything to do with that siege against the Transgenics that we heard about on the news the other night, does it."

"Maybe," Cordy replied with a grin. Then she shrugged again as she tried to explain, "I mean, I just feel like I should be there, ya know? Like I'd be abandoning my unit if I didn't go. Even though I know that's not true, I can't help feeling that way.

Faith just grinned in return. "I guess we're going to Seattle then."

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"You can't leave!" Buffy exclaimed as she stared incredulously at Faith.

"Why not?" Faith asked as she looked at the other Slayer.

"What about the Hellmouth?" Willow asked.

"B's here," Faith replied, "Hellmouth will be perfectly safe with her here. It's not a two Slayer job, she did just fine on her own before I showed up. Besides, if you need me to come help with an apocalypse or something, I'm just a phone call away."

"Are you taking Wesley with you?" Buffy asked. "He is your Watcher, after all."

Faith snorted. "No way," she said. "I prefer to be Watcher-free. I've done just fine without."

"What if you need a Watcher?" Buffy asked. "You won't have one."

Faith shrugged, "I have G's phone number. If I need anything Watcher-like, I'll call him. But I'll be fine."

"Do be careful," Giles told her as he tried not to look too pleased by Faith saying she'd turn to him for her Watcher needs.

"Will do, G," Faith replied. "Look, I gotta go. Queen C's waitin'."

"I can't believe you're going with Cordy," Xander muttered as he shook his head.

"She's not that bad," Faith told him. "We get each other."

"You'll call and check in every now and then?" Giles asked and Faith nodded.

"Sure thing. And now I really gotta go." She waved to the group as she started to walk away to meet Cordy back at their apartment so that they could leave for Seattle. "Tell Oz, I said goodbye," she said and Willow nodded her agreement.

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**Like I said, it's a short one. I hope you all liked it anyway, though.**

**~ Kyra**


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